Oscar's be damned, These are Jeremy's Top Ten films of 2014 Plus a few other special awards

Well the Oscars are upon us again, and I'm not going to blab on about who I think should or will win. I'm not too good at predicting. But what I am going to do is show you if this were my Academy awards. Now granted I didn't see everything this year gave us, but I did see my fair share of great movies. I regret not seeing "Whiplash" since everyone I came across told me I should see it and J.K. Simmons is awesome in anything. For the record the other nominated movies I didn't see were "The Theory of Everything", and "The Imitation Game", I'm sure they have their merits but their trailers didn't appeal to me. Call that judging the book by its cover or whatever, but that's just how I felt. Other films I guess I should've seen but didn't were "Nightcrawler", I guess Jake Gyllanhall was supposed to be good in that. I also didn't see "Locke" and I guess Tom Hardy was supposed to be good in that too. Also missed "Mr. Turner" which is by England's national treasure Mike Leigh, and "Force Majeure" which is a foreign dark comedy, and of course I love me some foreign dark comedy. Despite these omissions and others, I think I have a pretty good top ten list of movies I've seen this year, so without further adieu, here it is.


Top Ten of 2014

1. Under the Skin
2. Calvary
3. Only Lovers Left Alive
4. A Most Wanted Man
5. Snowpiercer
6. Ida
7. Grand Budapest Hotel
8. Gone Girl
9. Lucy
10. American Sniper

Best Director

Jonathan Glazer: Under the Skin
Jim Jarmusch: Only Lovers Left Alive
Anton Corbijn: A Most Wanted Man
Bong Joon-Ho: Snowpiercer
Wes Anderson: Grand Budapest Hotel


Best Actor

Brendan Gleeson: Calvary
Phillip Seymour Hoffman: A Most Wanted Man
Ralph Feinnes: Grand Budapest Hotel
David Oyelowo: Selma
Michael Keaton: Birdman

Best Actress

Tilda Swinton: Only Lovers Left Alive
Scarlett Johannson: Under the Skin
Rosamind Pike: Gone Girl
Agata Trzebuchowska: Ida
Jennifer Lawrence: Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Best Screenplay
Calvary
Grand Budapest Hotel
Only Lovers Left Alive
A Most Wanted Man
Ida

Movies I have to see a 2nd time because I haven't made my mind up about them

Boyhood: So many parts are compelling, but after awhile I felt the years melded into eachother and it became repetitive.

Inherent Vice: Grabbed me at the very beginning, but then meanders where I couldn't keep track of who was who. Maybe I'll appreciate it more the 2nd time since I kinda know who everyone is.

Interstellar Space has rarely looked this great, but it ends abruptly and tries to explore way too many themes.


And because I never announced it last year, and I know you people were just DYING to know, here were my favorite films from 2013

1.Inside Llewyn Davis
2.Gravity
3.Springbreakers
4.Before Midnight
5.The Wolf of Wall Street
6.Stories We Tell
7.The Great Gatsby
8.Something In the Air
9.Mud
10.The Wind Rises

Jeremy and the movies : The Worst Film of 2014: The Hobbit Battle for the Five Armies

I would say "The Hobbit" trilogy is somewhat of a fall from grace from Peter Jackson, considering his "Lord of The Rings" trilogy are still seminal films in the fantasy genre and also still works on an emotional and epic scale. "Lord of the Rings" came along when computer technology grew more sophisticated, and doing three movies based on three separate books was still a gamble. "Lord of the Rings" was a complex tale involving the lust for power, and Hobbits stood in as the every man who don't quite know what they are capable of. I feel Peter Jackson always never gave Hobbits the full attention they deserved even in "The Lord of the Rings" which focused a lot on Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn and Ian McKellan's Gandalf. The Hobbits had some time to shine, but were over always overshadowed in spectacle. So we come to "The Hobbit" a film which has the titular character in the title of the story but seems to always be taking a back seat, again to an Aragorn-like hero who is a dwarf. I actually enjoyed the first "Hobbit" film which a few people criticized for not being dark enough, however I thought it's the one film that felt the most true to the original story. By the time the second film rolled around, I sensed something was amiss. There was too much build up and very little pay off, and Bilbo, despite a great performance by Martin Freeman was put to the sidelines. The audience I was with seemed disgruntled by the abrupt ending that seemed anti-climactic.

But now we get to the final Hobbit Film "The Battle of the Five Armies" which is a travesty of over blown special effects, and meaningless subplots, it's a wonder how Peter Jackson ever became so misguided. "The Battle of the Five Armies" feels so cynical, adding no real emotion throughout. There is a subplot involving an Elf and a dwarf that comes out of left field, and their love seems so surface level, there never seems to ever be anything at stake. Once again Martin Freeman is left on the sidelines (This movie was called "The Hobbit" right?)while Aragorn err...I mean Thorin the Dwarf takes center stage.

The last forty five minutes are kept for a battle sequence which plays more like a video game. I can't imagine any of it was real. Jackson is a very talented filmmaker and I'm sure now that he is done with middle Earth he might want to explore some smaller stories which apparently he is planning on doing, but "The Battle of the Five Armies" feels like he left his heart at the door.